Relative dating laws and principles

It is said that he invented a screw pump, known after him as the Archimedes' Screw, for raising water by means of a hollow wooden pipe containing a close fitting wooden, helical screw on a long shaft turned by a handle at one end. Recognition that animal species could change can be found as long ago as with Anaxiamander of Miletus c.

We can use some archaeological evidence that follows a temporal sequence to establish the relative ages of fossil remains. See more about these claims below.

If two strata however distant in space or different in composition contained the same fossils, chances were good that they had been laid down at the same time.